Mitch Allen: Keeping an Open Mind

Me, You and Palm: Profiles of Palm People
	Role: Figuring out where Palm software needs to be in a year or two to make you love our products all over again; finding that next important thing and taking the first steps to build it. At Palm since: A tale of three companies -- from Handspring in 2000 to Palm in 2003 to the "new" Palm. I feel like I joined some crazy startup three years ago and am watching it come out of stealth mode with a bang.
I have helped bring the new webOS from whiteboard scrawls to swipes and flicks flashing across the screen. It's the hardest three years of my life, but I've enjoyed every day of it. You are going to feel liberated. Palm webOS brings the web to you instead of making you go to it.   Palm is developing webOS in an open and transparent way, with web standards as a fundamental part of the platform.

  

This is the part where I'm supposed to show my personal side and tell a few anecdotes, but I'm pretty single-minded about my work. When I focus on something this deep and challenging, it's all consuming. I've been lucky enough to work on some truly innovative technology over the past 25 years, from early desktop publishing and color matching at Kodak to graphics software at Apple and the original Treo smartphones here at Palm. I've learned the hard way that it takes an intense level of focus, commitment and then some luck to build a great product.

When we first started sketching out the next Palm device OS, we knew that - in the age of the Internet -- we'd need to do three things: provide fast, open access to the web, leverage the power of the device, and get out of the way of the web developer. It was incredibly gratifying to be part of the CES launch of the beautiful Pre and the webOS, but I still have a profound sense of anticipation as the power of a web-centric platform has yet to be fully shown. The mobile web is the future of the web, and webOS is a significant step in the right direction.

Join Mitch on a Facebook discussion board and ask him just how and where he goes about looking into the future for the next big thing.

Comments

[Hal]

The new Palm pre looks lovely, but it's on the Windows operating system, which isn't of much use for us Mac enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, the Palm system hasn't changed in years. Have you abandoned it?

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Hal -- The Palm Pre runs on Palm's brand new webOS. More information can be found at the below link.

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/index.html

[Himmi]

I like the WebOs and the Pre looks lovely, but I owned a Centro just a few weeks. I know its not X-Mas, but I wish me a little WebOS for my Centro - it doesn't need all the features, only the necessarily ones. Could my wish come true?

Greetings from Germany.

[JayCanuck]

OMG, is this the same Mitch that's gonna be presenting on the webcast? Celebrity of the geek world FTW :D

https://oreillymedia.webex.com/ec0600l/eventcenter/enroll/join.do?refresh=true

[Christian]

This is just a hello to Mitch. Thanks Mitch for making it happen for us. Looking forward to hearing from you on Feb 25. Can't wait to see what is done with all of the applications. By the way, I put together a little "get to know Mitch Allen" page at http://palmprefix.com/2009/02/17/mitch-allen-father-of-webos-godfather-of-palm-pre/
I thought you might get a kick out of it.

Thanks again.

Christian

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Himmi -- Guten Tag. It's February, but maybe Santa will come early this year. :)

Thanks for reading.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Christian -- I'm no doctor, but it's good to get the blood pumping once in a while. And I'm no Mitch Allen, but any CDMA device equipped with WiFi should be able to perform both functions simultaneously

[Zeenat S., Edelman for Palm]

JayCanuck--yes, it would be the same Mitch. (I'm sure he will get a kick out of being the "Celebrity of the geek world FTW!")

For those of you interested in developer news, Mitch is presenting a free webcast on Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. PT. It wil offer a preview of the webOS operating system and development environment, followed by a Q&A session.

More information is available at http://oreilly.com/go/webospreview.

[Karen Leonard]

I can't wait for the pre to be released for sale especially after watching the video on it's applications and abilities. I think this is going to blow the i-phone out of the water with it's os and applications. The one question I have is whether or not you can send, recieve pics in email (having the data application with sprint) and can you forward text messages. This is a draw back with people I know that have the i-phone. But, as I said, I can't wait til the pre is released! I know that I will be envied for my small computer/phone/internet service that is TOTALLy portable and FUN!

[Wendy]

will the applications I have currently running on my Treo run on the new Pre?

[Cameron]

Hey Mitch. Just wanted to say that webOS is pretty much the strongest thing about the new Pre. Not that there aren't other pretty good features, but multi-tasking really was the tipping point for me to stick with Palm for another phone.

[Kalai]

Too bad that we got no chance to enjoy and comment much on this Phone. Its not in Singapore and no idea when its gonna be released in GSM. Feels much like deprived :-(